Justinian I received silkworm eggs from monks in the sixth century, enabling silk production in the Byzantine Empire.
According to Procopius, two monks who had traveled to lands associated with China or India told Emperor Justinian I how silk was produced. Around 552, they reportedly returned with silkworm eggs concealed in hollow walking staffs. The eggs were cultivated in Constantinople, and Byzantine sericulture developed from this transfer.
Before that point, the Byzantine Empire imported finished silk through trade networks, often involving Persian intermediaries. Local production gave Constantinople greater control over a luxury material used for clothing, court ceremony, church furnishings, and diplomatic gifts.
The account should be treated with historical care. Procopius’s story is the main surviving narrative, and the monks’ precise origin and route are uncertain. It is also unlikely that one episode alone explains every stage of silk technology transfer. Still, Justinian’s reign is conventionally linked with the establishment of silk production in the Byzantine world.